How the Defense Logistics Agency Used Minitab to Reduce the Prices of Spare Military Parts

It’s always interesting to see how people are using Minitab, and the successes they see!

We just posted a case study that features the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and their use of Minitab for the data analysis of spare parts data.

The DLA is responsible for nearly 100% of the necessary food, fuel, medical supplies, and equipment U.S. military forces stationed worldwide need to operate. Equipment supplied by the DLA includes spare parts needed for the repairs of military vehicles and tools. To help keep the costs of parts low, the agency worked with Honeywell in June 2000 to negotiate a twelve-year pricing contract that included predetermined, escalated-for-inflation prices.

But by 2008, the DLA wondered if the contract’s terms for pricing were still reasonable. The DLA formed a multi-functional team of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) practitioners from its own organization, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Honeywell to investigate and ensure the fair pricing of spare parts. When the time came to analyze their data, the team used Minitab Statistical Software.

Measuring a Metric with Minitab

The LSS project team defined a metric that classified part prices as “acceptable” if they remained within a band of plus or minus 15% from the original contract price. Prices that fluctuated outside of this band were classified as “defects.”

With this metric defined, the team used Minitab to analyze defective price increases and determine if those price increases were contributing to profits for Honeywell that exceeded the terms of the contract. Measuring the defects revealed that only 40% of parts were within the acceptable pricing band and 60% were outside of the band and experienced more than a 15% increase or decrease in price. Minitab graphs helped the team conclude that part prices had increased more than 21% since the initial contract price.

When it came time to brainstorm potential causes and possible solutions for decreasing part prices, the team relied on Minitab’s cause-and-effect diagrams to organize and clearly display all of their brainstorming information.

Graphic Display of Effectiveness

Their brainstorming session led the team to conclude that a re-pricing mechanism was needed within the contract at the three-to-five year mark in order to effectively control pricing. After implementing the re-pricing strategy, the team used Minitab to create graphical summaries of the re-priced parts data that clearly displayed the effect of the initiative. A new measure of total defects revealed that 82% of spare parts were now within the acceptable pricing band, and only 17.5% of parts included more than a 15% increase in price.

Minitab capability analysis provided another graphical display of the effectiveness of re-pricing. This analysis showed that the majority of part prices were reduced, with 49% of parts having a significant pricing reduction of more than 15%.

In all, the total price of spare parts was reduced by 9.4%, which yielded a savings of $9.5 million for the DLA. Further, the team was able to identify another $3.2 million in savings after canceling a shipment of over-procured parts. Moving forward, the team projects future savings of at least $3.16 million per year with the new pricing strategy.

Check out the full case study for more about the DLA’s use of Minitab.

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